University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2002 Nature and identity in the creation of Franconia Notch: Conservation, tourism, and women's clubs Kimberly Ann Jarvis University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Jarvis, Kimberly Ann, "Nature and identity in the creation of Franconia Notch: Conservation, tourism, and women's clubs" (2002). Doctoral Dissertations. 70. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/70 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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NATURE AND IDENTITY IN THE CREATION OF FRANCONIA NOTCH CONSERVATION, TOURISM, AND WOMEN’S CLUBS BY KIMBERLY ANN JARVIS BA, University of Connecticut, 1990 MS, Southern Connecticut State University, 1992 MA, University of New Hampshire, 1998 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History May, 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3045330 Copyright 2002 by Jarvis, Kimberly Ann All rights reserved. ___ ® UMI UMI Microform 3045330 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2002 KIMBERLY A. JARVIS Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation Direaror, Kurk Dorsey, Associate Professor of History t ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ' _______ Lucy Salyer, Associate Profe^r of History E^len Fitzpatrick! Associate Professor of History Sarah Sherman, Associate Professor of English /,// ■ _______ Riehard Judd, Professor offlistory. University of Maine Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION For my father and brother and in memory of my mother, Christina M. Jarvis iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Graduate School of the University of New Hampshire for its financial support. Two Summer Teaching Assistant Fellowships allowed me to complete my research and a Dissertation Year Fellowship gave me the opportunity to devote myself to writing this dissertation. Grants from the Graduate School helped defray the costs of traveling to professional conferences at which I presented my work. I am grateful for the assistance provided by the Graduate School, without which this dissertation would not have been completed in a timely manner. The Department of History at the University of New Hampshire has provided financial as well as scholarly support since 1996. I thank the History Department for awarding me the Roland Sawyer Scholarship and for the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant. I would particularly like to thank Jeanne Mitchell for her support. I am fortunate in that I have many people to thank for their assistance as I worked on this dissertation. I would like to thank my advisor, Kurk Dorsey, for his encouragement of this project over the past several years. He has helped make this dissertation both a challenge and a pleasure. I am grateful for the guidance he offered and for his good humor. I would like to thank Lucy Salyer for her kindness, as well as for her assistance with and interest in my dissertation. I am especially grateful to Richard Judd, whose insight helped shape this dissertation. I thank Ellen Fitzpatrick for her discerning comments about this project and am grateful to Sarah Sherman for introducing me to the literature that influenced the focus of this work. I thank each of these five people for taking the time to serve as members of my committee. Any errors in this dissertation are entirely my own and are no reflection upon my committee. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I would also like to thank Cathy Frierson for her guidance and encouragement of my career in history and in higher education, as well as for the insight and inspiration I gained through my work and travel as part of the New Hampshire/Volodga Partnership. To Ethel Sara Wolper, whose classes in Islamic history and art enriched my personal as well as my intellectual life, I offer my gratitude and thanks. I am fortunate to have been her student. I would like to thank the staff of Milne Special Collections at the University of New Hampshire Library. Bill Ross, Elizabeth Slomba, Becky Ernest, Roland Goodbody, and Dale Valena provided several years of guidance and support. I thank Suzanne Gould at the General Federation of Women’s Clubs Archives for her assistance with this project. I would also like to thank Rosemary Conroy and Trish Churchill of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests for their encouragement of and interest in my dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank those closest to me. My roommate and fellow Ph.D. candidate Holly Rine has my heartfelt thanks for her friendship, encouragement, and patience, as do Paula Rioux and Erica Brown. I thank Jennifer Annick, Sarah Carroll, Kerry Pearce Parkins, and Christy Wells for decades of love and encouragement. Most importantly, I thank my father and brother for their patience and support. I dedicate this dissertation to them, and most especially to my mother, Christina M. Jarvis, whose death in January 2000 rendered priceless the memories of childhood trips to the White Mountains. I owe my success to my family’s support, and to them I offer love and gratitude. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION......................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................................ix ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................. x CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 1 I. ROMANTIC PERCEPTIONS OF WHITE MOUNTAINS SCENERY.......................20 The Natural History of Franconia Notch............................................................................... 21 Travels in the White Mountains: “Truly Grand and Often Awfully Sublime” .................39 II. CREATING A VISION: INTERPRETATIONS OF WHITE MOUNTAINS SCENERY 1820-1860: “A Suburb of Paradise” .............................................................59 Catering to Summer Visitors: The Beginnings of the Hotel Industry in the White Mountains ..................................................................................................................................61 When the White Mountains Lost an Innkeeper but Gained National Attention ................68 “It’s Jefferson!” The Old Man of the Mountain and Franconia Notch ...............................73 Painting a Vision of the White Mountains: Thomas Cole’s Vision